“Sure,” she said, but she stared at the painting a little longer before turning away.
He led her out through the other side of the building, which took them onto the main street through the village. This time of the afternoon, there weren’t many people around, but he knew many of the residents were peeping out from behind their curtains. Everyone knew the nurse was arriving today. Everyone was curious.
As they walked he pointed out the Post Office, the grocery store, the pub, and Sanjit’s restaurant, thinking them the most important.
“The Ladies from Hades?” she said, obviously catching sight of the pub sign, with a kilted and armed Highlander painted on it.
“It’s a play on the nickname for a famous Scottish regiment.”
“The Black Watch,” she said, surprising him. “Must have been opened by an ex-military man. And you have a curry shop here too?”
He wanted to ask how she knew about the Black Watch and their World War I nickname, but left it for another time.
“We’re actually very lucky,” he explained, speaking a little louder than usual because of the sound of her suitcase bumping along behind him over the cobbles. He’d left the sliver of sidewalk to her and her high heels, since the last thing he needed was for her to twist her ankle before she even started working. “Eilean Rurie has attracted a variety of artists, farmers, and business people over the years, making our population rather more eclectic than some of the other islands.”
“Like the owner of the curry shop?”
“Exactly. Sanjit Gopaul came here on vacation with his parents and, for whatever reason, fell in love with the island. He came back and asked if I’d be willing to let him open a restaurant, and I said sure. That was five years ago. He’s been an amazing addition to the island and shows no signs of wanting to leave. In fact, he also runs a canoe rental and tour operation during the summer, and he’s always looking for new businesses to start.”
“Including that jet thing?”
There was no mistaking the disapproval in her voice, and his look at her profile found it echoed there in her pursed lips. It made Cam’s hackles rise a bit.
“Yes, like the water jetpack. I was sad to have to tell him no. It was a lot of fun. Wouldn’t you like to have a go?”
She gave him a bland look, all censure erased from her expression. “I should say not. I’m not into that kind of thing.”
Striving for a light tone, he teased, “What kind of thing? Having fun?”
Looking into the window of the shop they were passing, she replied, “More like stuff that’ll get you killed or maimed.”
“Ha! It’s safe as houses if you’re careful and know what you’re doing.”
The skeptical look she gave him scorched him to his toes.
“No wonder you didn’t give him permission to offer it to visitors.” Then, as if tired of the discussion, she changed the subject completely. “Your village is beautiful—although I’ll admit when I first saw the island from the ferry I thought it looked like something out of a very scary story.”
That made Cam chuckle, even though he still felt the sting of her retort about the jetpack. He knew the exact vista she was talking about.
“Eigg Point, no doubt—before you round the headland and see the village. That sheer black cliff with the sea foaming around its base does look like it belongs in a horror movie on a misty, overcast day like today. On a sunny day, though, when the hills are so startlingly green they look like they were drawn with crayon and the water is smooth and clear, it’s very different. There’s the surgery,” he added, pointing across the grassy village green to the three-story building beyond.
“That’s your surgery? It looks more like a fancy hotel!”
Cam chuckled. “My great-grandfather built it to try and attract a decent doctor to take up residence. I used to tease my grandfather that he only took up medicine so he’d be able to work in the second nicest building on the island. He didn’t deny it.”
“I don’t blame him,” she said.
The appreciation in her voice was pleasing.
“Normally I’d cut across the green to get to the surgery, but it’s pretty wet right now and your heels would sink in.”
“Thank you.”
She had a prim way of speaking he rather liked, and an intriguing way of pronouncing some words that gave unusual flavor to an otherwise very North London voice. Caitlin had mentioned that Harmony’s mother’s family had originally come from Jamaica, and he thought he could hear an echo of that migration in the nurse’s voice. It was so nice, especially with its husky tone, he was tempted to keep her talking so he could go on hearing it.
“Patients come in through either the front door or the one closest to the car park on the north side,” he told her as they approached the surgery. “But you have your own entrance on the other side.”
Cam led her around the building, and as they got to the door heard her give a little gasp.
“Oh! What’s that back there?”
She was looking up the hill through the trees, along the track he used every day.
“That’s the nicest building on the island—Rurie Manor.”
Big hazel eyes stared at him. “You live there?”
“Yeah,” he said, opening the outer door and holding it for her, once more pleased at her awestruck reaction to his home. “But only in a small part of it. Most of the Manor is a hotel now.”
Harmony turned back to stare at the Manor a moment more, before stepping through the door and into the entryway.
Cam glanced at his watch. Time to test his glucose levels.
Handing her the keys, he said, “There’s another door at the top of the stairs, and the door behind me leads into the surgery, so I sometimes come in this way, but otherwise you’ll be the only person using it. Go on up and check out your apartment, and I’ll bring up your suitcase in a moment.”
“Thank you.”
Her slightly stiff reply made him want to break the ice a little more. He was used to a relaxed atmosphere in his practice and hoped to establish that type of working relationship with her too. Even with his niggling suspicion he should actually keep her as distant as he could. Just standing in the small entryway she seemed too close, with her citrusy perfume warming the air between them and those golden eyes surveying him with solemn intensity.
“Hopefully life on the island won’t seem too tame and boring for you after living and working in London. At least Christmas should be exciting.”
His words stumbled to a halt, arrested by the flash of pain crossing her face.
“I’m looking forward to the quiet,” she said, turning toward the steps and hitching her tote bag higher. “And Christmas can pass me by and I won’t complain.”
Had he somehow put his foot in his mouth? He couldn’t see how. Everyone loved Christmas, didn’t they?
But even as he was trying to figure out what he’d said wrong he found himself staring once more at her delectable rear end, until it sashayed around the corner of the landing and disappeared.
HARMONY STOOD IN the middle of the apartment, not even taking in the space around her, annoyed at herself for being so curt with her new employer. Not to mention for the